Outplayed, Outplaying
by AnimeOtakuForevah
Summary: Right after the events of the Movie, the 1% of the Neuroi were now tired of their losses, it was obvious to them that they will lose their grip on the planet Earth if they suffered more and more losses. That meant they had to outsmart the humans, so they made their first and 2nd Squadron. But as we all know, Using the enemy's knowledge never works out in Strike Witches.
1. Chapter 1

Outplayed? Outplaying.

The 501st has been reformed, the legendary witches that saved the world, have just saved it once more. But there was more to come especially within the Neuroi themselves.

The hexagon shaped beings, within their nest far from Earth talked amongst one another, giving high pitched squealing in different frequencies. Translation:

" **Humanity is gaining their own against us. Our own forces has lost morale and tried joining them."** each time a Neuroi started to communicate their core would glow at varying tones, They were the 1% these Neuroi, smart enough for conscious thought needed to spread their knowledge to others.

" **Yes. This is happening."**

" **Solution?"**

" **We think like them."**

" **Procedures?"**

" **Analyze the human brain, gather 300 units."**

With this, Neuroi started to target dense communities instead of their natural patterns, only gathering specific people. No witches, as they could be destroyed.

Cities were burning, places where there was no such thing as a Neuroi invasion, were invaded. Witches arrived and killed them off but enough were to escape with the brain.

Months of regular fighting ensued, the Neuroi thought that if they gave the humans the idea that they were returning to their predictable pattern this next pattern might be executed well to get them out of there.

The 501st

The redhead commander greeted the crew with good news, a smiling face and an upbeat attitude, but still maintaining the discipline that a soldier needs to stay in charge.

" **Luckily for us, It seemed after the encounters with rogue Neuroi, they have returned back to their normal forecasts, forecasts now have 100% Accuracy. That is all."**

Thewithces looked amongst each other and smirked, now their lives could go back to being less hectic! This was good! Maybe they took out the smartest of the Neuroi.

The brown haired hero of Fuso was especially happy. This might mean that the War would be over soon.

" **Isn't this great!?"** Yoshika had exclaimed out loud, jumping up and having her brown hair bounce up a little bit, as the rest of the witches were dismissed as well.

" **Don't get too happy Miyafuji, there's still Neuroi, they might be plotting something."** The soldier of Karsland who had her hand on her chin, as she was analyzing the information she was just given, she was sure there was something off of this. There was, there had to be. With all this thinking she had lost track of where she was going, she had never been this deep into thought before, as she had then bumped her head on a door.

" **?" 'Maybe I'm thinking too far into this…'** her skeptical self said to itself.

 **Back to The Neuroi**

The Neuroi were looking amongst themselves. The cores could detect other cores there, that is how they saw each other, just like bacteria, they detect other things the same way.

" **We are ready to engage. The 1st Neuroi Multi-Terrain force!"** The leader core had yelled out as he had then given the order to start building these said Neuroi, just like against the 502nd they would have a core within a core which would move as well. They needed to make squadrons which will ensure their victory, studying their combat tactics as well as studying what magic does.

The Neuroi would be shaped the same in terms if they were in the same class of soldier. A Heavy Weight soldier holding heavier beam weapons would have more armor, and a bigger body, this would most likely make humans target it first.

Healer Neuroi would try and rebuild cores as it would be damaged at a fast rate, it would be skinny and be the fastest out of all of the Neuroi. As well as having the ability to Morph as a different class of Neuroi

Light weight Neuroi would be as small as the healer Neuroi, shaped in the same way as the aces of the 501st, small and fast moving with small amounts of energy but could fire in High bursts.

Unlike others, the Medium weight Neuroi would be made with a human weapon to wield. The usage of these weapons was great, to kill the Humans with their own weapons would be fancy indeed.

They even gave these Neuroi the ability to communicate in Human terms. They needed as human like features to make sure that these Neuroi would be more superior than humans. Dubbing them through popular names of each country, each squadrond has 10 people on their team. They were now using the tactics human used to defeat their own forces, using the enemy technology against them! It was Genius!

?

A general had sneezed, a Fuso general on a fleet.

" **Got a cold?"** One of his underclassmen had asked him

" **No I just got the feeling someone was mentioning me."**

As so the 10 were formed, shaped just like the girls of Earth, but with the sleek black and red hexagon pattern that Neuroi came with, they had enough detail to have facial expression, and as well as their own weapons.

" **Wow...So this is how it looks like and sounds like to be a human!"** A lightweight asked as her and the rest had jumped off the Neuroi hive from space to crashland into Earth.

" **Time to see how well we pair against these Earthlings!"** The same talkative lightweight asked, as she was then scolded by the others there. The talkative lightweight was shaped the same as Miyafuji, as if she were her Neuroi clone. She held herself a Neuroi Replica of the M1 Garand. Although it functioned as a beam weapon more than a bullet weapon.

" **Geez, Sakuya we just got here. Stop acting like a bare-core."** A bustier and taller woman said, holding her weapon, It seemed to be a sleek black rocket launcher. With a loose iron sight for aiming.

" **Base, Where is our location?"** Another Neuroi woman asked, holding her ear as she had held a human weapon as well, it was a silver slug shotgun. This woman had longer hair than the two who spoke before her.

The other seven did not speak, and they went on their way after recieving orders to go to the nearest location of witches.

" **We're located in the same area as those 501st witches, the 2nd squadron should be dealing with the witches at the main fight in Karsland."**

A fight was starting, that wasn't good…


	2. The start of a new age of Smart Neuroi

**Hi I'm back! Sorry for not posting to my last fanfic, I really didn't have any juice or ideas left for it. If anyone from there, reads this… please, help me out on that, message me something! But I have a lot of juice left for this story! I don't know if this idea has been done before but, I'll keep to it! I've only read one Strike Witches fanfic…**

An Alarm had rung in the base, the loud noise of the alarm had gotten everyone's attention. It was not time for a Neuroi invasion just yet, but who knows they may try something new, like they have done in the past. With that only a few had gathered around, both Karsland soldiers, near their striker units.

" **What does the situation look like?"** Asked Barkhorn, the Karlsland soldier. Being here first, she was a strictler in data and what a soldier must be, so naturally she would ask the situation instead of going with the flow.

The leader in charge here, had turned towards her ally, the brownish/marroonish hair woman was always the first she trusted with information

" **Right now, there is a group of 10 Neuroi. They're…"** The leader had glowed a bit as she had then tried to see what was happening in the situation. **"They're human shaped again? And they are flying towards this base!** "

Knowing their past encounters with human looking Neuroi they were always the type to try and be peaceful and add solutions on how to defeat the evil Neuroi, of course this couldn't be the case anymore, could it?

" **Everyone wear your units, be ready for an attack but listen to what they have to say first, Miyafuji's encounters are not to be in vain."**

Speaking of the devil the said womnan had just came into the room and she had her usual cheerful smile, with the her best friend as well. The two were basically a match, as they were talking to each other more than paying attention.

" **Everyone, get in your Units, prepare for combat if needed."** The commander had commanded.

As ordered those that came in had gotten in their units and had their arms ready, all 10 members here. The commander had soon told everyone of the situation and why they didn't just burst out to kill the Neuroi.

" **Hey the base is coming, at 10 O'clock!"** The lightweight had said once more, of course she was going to also scout around for any units, but there were none, were they not there? Well. It was unsafe, but they had the superior technology here. **"No Units, and only one gate is open, probably where they go to take off. So get ready!"**

The healer had started to give a boost to her teammates as they would have tougher armor now. But it didn't last for long, these were temporary boosts that only lasted 60 seconds, but did mean life or death to those facing against witches. **"Sakuya get over here so I can boost you!"** The healer commanded as she was a bit annoyed by the constant 'Cat and mouse chase she was being put on' It was their first mission, but they already knew each other too well. Was this the higher up's doing? Probably.

" **Approaching the base in 5!"** Another medium unit said, as she held her gun close, It wasn't like most weapons, if anything it was a thing of its own. It was an Auto-Aiming Rifle. All she had to do was point in the General direction of an opponent and it would lock on to them. She held it close.

" **Okay Start the prefire! Explosive Medium classes go!"** The heavyweight had yelled out, as they were closing in on the base.

The said Medium classes had gone out of the comfort zone, unsafed their guns and started to fire, Missiles and rockets. Right down at the base, going for windows, making places where people would be explode.

" **Okay! Cease fire, reload right now!"** The heavyweight had yelled out as she had then pulled out a Neuroi version of a Smoke grenade, It looked exactly the same as the human one, but still covered in the black and red hexagon outlines that all Neuroi had with them. Throwing 10 down onto the ground made enough room for them to go in.

" **I need 5 girls in the air and 5 girls on ground go go go!"** The heavyweight said

" **Sakuya (Lightweight), Ella (Medium Weight), Aria (Medium Weight), Vera (Healer), and Delmi (Heavyweight) go in the sky. Caylor (Lightweight) Tanith (Lightweight), Asia (Healer) and Sasha (Medium Weight) go with me!"**

" **Understood!"**

The strike witches had heard the booms they made on their new base. It was clear they were not here for any sort of peace talks, they were here now to kill them.

" **Go Go go! Ladies!"** Minna had commanded as she had gone out with them, 10 on 10 would be fair, she wouldn't want to put her girls in a disadvantage at all. Especially since they don't know the physical capabilities.

" **Wait a minute…5 is on the ground and 5 is in the air, Sanya, Eila, Charlotte, Lucchini, and myself will be on the ground, The rest of you go in the sky!"** It seemed that the Neuroi changed from the last time they had met with a humanoid, they nolonger just copied a witch and their actions, they now made their own humanoids, and now they were trying to attack them with their own types of people. They were getting stronger…

" **Understood!"** Yoshika, Lynne, Erica, Gertrud, and Perrine were in the air. It wasn't long before they met their opponent. Immediately they started to shoot out. They were moving in semi-predictable straight lines.

" **Okay guys! They're here! Let's show them that us Neuroi aren't always so predictable!"** Sakuya yelled out. She had dived down as she was being shot at and was followed by Vera, who moved just as fast as her. "Okay Let me just wake a few shots!" She shot the 8 bullets that one would normally have in the M1 Garand, It was quite odd yes to the humans? A person from Fuso, well having a Fuso name to have a weapon used by the Liberions? Well, the Neuroi didn't go that far into the research of that.

" **You guys heard that? They could speak!"** Yoshika had pointed out, she was wondering why this was the case. This had never happened before? This was very new! She opened up her large shield and absorbed the bullets. **"Human bullets!"** She also pointed out, the others were just as surprised as well but they needed to keep into combat.

This was quite the situation indeed…

 **To be Continued!**


	3. The Human victory!

**Hi I'm back! I got my first review on this fanfic, thank you so much! I really got a lot of information from your critique from your review. I hope to make your effort in teaching me in some etiquette in writing worth it!**

In the sky, just like the ground the number of opponents fighting is even, one pick for another. So separate fights ensued: Yoshika vs Sakuya, Erica and Gertrud vs Delmi and Vera, Lynne vs Ella, and Perrine vs Aria. On the ground, the individual battles taking place are listed as: Lucchini vs Caylor, Charlotte vs Tanith, Sanya and Eila vs Asia and Alexia (Heavyweight), Minna vs Sasha.

Yoshika had stopped being shocked at the sight of Neuroi that were acting like humans, but still maintained their physical qualities of being a Neuroi, that sleek black with hexagon outlines as patterns that contoured their bodies. The obvious winner of firepower was her, she had a fast firing machine gun, while the Neuroi, had a single-fire weapon. Letting out a roar, she had fired more and more, trying to place the bullets where she would be not where she is.

Sakuya was in defensive mode right now. The flaw of this human weapon was the loud sound TING! It would create once the magazine was finished, and it only held 8 bullets per cartridge, did humans actually think this weapon was effective? Well, she had one more if she were to run out of bullets on this one. _"Listen! Nothing personal, but if we win, we're going to kill you! It's orders from the higher ups!"_ She yelled, before pointing her gun, and then shooting right at Yoshika's weapon. All 8 of the bullets aimed for the barrel, or the magazine.She kept silent, but these were anti-witch bullets, in the experience the Neuroi had with fighting them, their shields were the most effective defensive mechanism against Neuroi. Not today!

Yoshika had blocked the attack, but her expression was showing a frightened woman. As the bullets slowly sunk into the shield and shot through, it hit her gun, but the strength of her shield was strong enough to slow down the bullets. Strengthening her shield would be her only option. _"How do you know our languages?!"_ She asked as she had then shot the flying light weighted Neuroi. One bullet had to hit, she needed to know where the core was.

Sakuya chuckled _"You humans and your overconfidence! We have figured out your languages quite easily in the past few years, that's why our attack patterns became more irratic in your eyes, as they didn't follow the forecast right?"_ She didn't continue on but she did make sure that her shots made It, unlike the woman she was placing her shots well, while trying to get out of the way of the fast round per minute shots her gun was creating. She was running out of Ammo, she only did have 8 cartridges given to her by the base.

Yoshika heard these words, and became more freightened, meaning this could mean that the Neuroi were innovating faster than the humans were, the Neuroi could win this war! She wouldn't let it! She needed to protect those who she loved. This emotion gave her more adrenaline, more raw power to go off on. Yoshika waited for the woman to reload before she flew straight to her, and shot her gun.

Neuroi, didn't have shields, they only had their tough skin and cores. As a trade off for using such high levels of intelligence, the squad units sacrificed their own regeneration ability for more higher level thinking. That's why every single squad has a healer. They learned to manipulate a core so that another Neuroi could heal someone else. Sakuya's Neuroi grade eyes widened, the red expanding on the face as she was face to face with a barrel of a Machine gun. Already finished reloading, she pointed hers as well, and started to fire.

Yoshika had fired her own weapon as well, the two colliding with each other but in the end she out powered the rifle that was shooting her. She broke the gun and shot Sakuya, in the body breaking it, and exposing the core. She saw this and shot her down immediately.

The Neuroi fragments exploded into the air, as they fell down. Landing on the grass, the only thing Yoshika didn't get was the true core, which was hidden inside of the core. With pure luck it had dodged all bullets, that came towards it.

One stray bullet was fired and as Yoshika tried retreating seeing the woman was dying, a stray M1 Garand bullet was shot, and due to her carelessness, came down to her arm.

Yoshika had grunted in pain as she saw blood on her arm. She looked for the shooter but it was gone. One lucky shot got her out of the fight too! She panted, and went towards Lynne. Trying to support her friend, she had enough ammo.

 _However, Sakuya was not dead_

The Healer-Heavyweight combo was doing much better against their human counterparts than the lightweight. As the attacker took damage, it was instantly healed.

" _Ah Delmi, I gotta go heal up Sakuya. She's still alive her core isn't destroyed."_ The healer went down quickly to push its own healing 'magic' on Sakuya.

" _Ah! She's trying to run away!"_ The blonde Karsland soldier exclaimed now taking out a trusty small MP40 and chasing the healer. As she seemed to try and fly to the ground. "Let's see where should your core be…" Erica had thought before shooting the Neuroi in the head, since it wasn't defending the shot went through, just plain white in there, the brain was not where the core was, then what about the heart? She started to shoot towards the heart.

The healer was not liking the attention she was getting, she moved around, and even felt the pain of her head getting shot. Is this how humans felt? It did hurt, why would they go to war like this? If they knew they would feel so much tremendous pain from suffering such little amounts of damage… It didn't make sense. _"She's aiming for my heart…"_ The healer thought looking back at Erica, a little bit annoyed by it. It was sure that she wouldn't hit her true core but if she couldn't heal her teammates, when their core gets hit they might as well be dead.

" _Ah."_ She flew up right as she reached the Neuroi fragments of Sakuya, trying to dodge the bullets, they were hitting her back, she could feel the pain of being shot by these bullets. But she couldn't expose her core. Extending her arm to her back she covered the area where her core would be.

" _This is not looking good…"_

Back with the two who were left behind.

Before the Neuroi had sent these women out to fight, they equipped their core with information about various weapons, meaning they could engage in guerilla warfare.

" _A MG15120? That's a dangerous weapon right there. With magic that could take out a lot of Neuroi aircraft."_ She said to her, before her weapon transformed, now it had the look of a M61 Vulcan, with the sleek black and red hexagon texture. She revved up the said monster before firing multiple lasers at the woman. While moving, she was aiming at her just the same way. It seemed the two knew exactly what the other was going to do.

Barkhorn, saw the copy of the minigun that was used by some witches. _"You know a lot of Human technology, don't tell me certain humans are actually Neuroi spying on us!"_ She yelled out before waiting for a stoppage or stop of the firing before she could corner this Neuroi.

" _Hm? Maybe."_ The heavy weight had taunted, that never happened because Neuroi didn't possess the capabilities to speak like humans until today when this squadron was deployed. She kept firing the beam cannon right where she thought she was going to be, Unlike humans Neuroi had an almost infinite source of energy within their cores.

Gertrud realized that this woman's big size. Unlike her, she was very small and it made it hard to hit, and the beams that would hit her were being blocked by her shield. She was trying to seep out as much information from her as possible. The Neuroi also moved a little slower than her, meaning it was easy to predict where she would be going.

Gertrud fired her rifle right at her head, wondering if that was where the core was. The bullets made it through, and the saw the woman also flinch? Looks like this battle was turning in their favor.

Delmi got angry as she was shot in the head, and she started to move and quick. She was going to overpower this woman if it was the last thing it took. She waited for the woman to fire her weapon, and she would fire her beams at her. All it took was 1 beam to kill her gun and it was checkmate.

Gertrud fired her weapon. Of course, in the worst possible situation it had overheated. She quickly tried to change the steel rod that kept it going, before it was shot out of her hands. Delmi didn't waste this chance and got into point blank range to her, and fired right at her stomach, 10 beam attacks, right on her stomach.

"GAH!" She yelled out before she fell down from the Sky.

Delmi smirked and then flew off to try and find her healer. Before feeling pain, she felt pain, lots and lots of pain before looking down to see her core was gone? Who destroyed it? She gave a Neuroi screech, before exploding into fragments.

The one who shot her was, Lynne. Their battle was not as successful as before, as the woman they were fighting had fled from them as soon as the other woman had arrived. With no one left to fight, Lynne lined up a shot and shot Delmi in the heart, based on the information Yoshika had radioed to everyone right after this defeat.

" _They're smart…They also got Barkhorn-san…"_ Yoshika muttered out, already in fear that she might be hurt, yelling out her name she flew down towards Gertrud and healed the woman. This was no ordinary Neuroi, they were almost like humans… She healed her up, fixing her wounds in almost an instant, she opened her eyes and then looked at the two.

" _Thank you, Miyafuji."_ She was greatful that she was saved, but she let her guard down and that gave the opponent the upper hand.

" _Let's go help the others, Yoshika!"_ The busty blonde pilot had exclaimed before flying towards the petite pilot. Who was having more of a dogfight with her opponent. Because of the numbers she was defeated. They needed someone to be captive, to gain intelligence, with that the three captured the Neuroi. It seemed that the Medium sized ones carried human weapons.

The healer and Erica were in a show off, they both had weapons and they both were still.

" _Ah your friend is about to die from us!"_ She yelled out, before shooting her, if she didn't turn or lose her guard she might get her with the hit.

Erica didn't fall for it and put up her shield, but this time when she shield Disippated she had then saw that the Healer…wasn't there anymore! Where did she go! Right under the woman, the healer flew and tried to touch the small core of Sakuya, as she had reached her. Touching her fragment the Neuroi woman had reformed.

"Gah!" She yelled out as she felt her core being shot at as she tried to make the cheeky move. Looks like they weren't so hot after all.

When Sakuya reformed, she hid as they were shooting the medic, and she had died. No more healing or regeneration. She had to at the least get the two off of Ella. She got her weapon out and tried shooting the women but it was too late. She was surrounded. Both Gertrud and Erica got her.

"Damn it! Let Ella go!" She yelled out as she was then put into an arm lock. She refused to let them touch her, for some odd reason she had the feeling that humans had, the feeling of…Wanting to protect something? "I said let her go! I'll kill you if you touch her!"

The humans looked at her.

Yoshika knew that rage all too well. _"Calm down. We wont hurt you."_ Of course, being the nicest in the group was going to lead to a lot of hiding, she had a feeling the rest of the 501st joint fighter wing will do very out of character things today.

"Air unit, status?! Air unit?!" The ground unit yelled out, as they were more on the winning side this time. "Ah fuck…We need to retreat team!" Asia yelled as she had threw a Neuroi smoke grenade down and created a huge cloud of smoke before the rest retreated with her. "Air units do you copy?!" She yelled before giving up hope that they were fine. They were defeated weren't they?

 **To Be Continued**

 **(Don't worry the human winning streak won't be constant)**


End file.
